Zoning

Critics of a plan to build 325 homes on one part of historic Doughoregan Manor and preserve the rest of the Ellicott City estate attacked the complex proposal as a "manufactured artifice," as they tried this week to defeat a necessary zoning change. Opponents used the very intricacy of the multipart plan and the fact that Howard County's zoning board members also serve as County Council members as the basis for their argument. Several opponents also suggested that there might have been collusion between the estate's owners and county lawyers.

Walter Evan Black Jr., a retired chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Maryland who ruled against the city of Baltimore in its efforts to acquire the Colts after the team moved to Indianapolis, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Monday at his Easton home. The former Roland Park-area resident was 88. During a lengthy career, he ruled against Baltimore in 1985 when it attempted to acquire the Colts football franchise by condemnation. In his ruling, he said the city did not have the power to take the franchise because the team had moved on the night of March 29, 1984, before the day the city had filed its suit.

The Friendly Inn's neighbors have lost another round in their quest to stop the Ellicott City tavern from building an outdoor patio, though the yearlong struggle may be far from over. The bar and restaurant, known in recent years as a gathering place for blues music, has been an outpost on once-rural Frederick Road at Folly Quarter Road since before Howard County adopted zoning in 1948, but newcomers who bought new retirement homes around it say the patio would change the neighborhood they've come to love.

Matthew VanDyke, the self-styled "Arab Spring Freedom Fighter" from Baltimore, was a friend of the two American journalists who were beheaded by Islamic State militants. VanDyke met James Foley and Steven Sotloff during his travels in Libya, and it was Foley to whom he first confided what we all later came to learn - that VanDyke was neither a journalist nor a filmmaker when he was captured and held in a Libyan prison for six months in 2011. Instead, he had gone there to fight with the rebels who eventually overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The Baltimore County Planning Board is set to hear public comment Thursday on a former golf course and country club off of Falls Road in Lutherville that's been the subject of a zoning dispute. A public hearing about the former Chestnut Ridge Country Club is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Jefferson Building, located at 105 Chesapeake Ave. in Towson. The County Council voted last year to limit development on the approximately 230-acre property, following the recommendation of Councilwoman Vicki Almond, a Reisterstown Democrat who represents the district where the site is located.

The petition drive to block some zoning changes for the 30-year plan to redevelop central Columbia appears doomed, based on a preliminary review of signatures by the Howard County Board of Elections. After two days of counting, the board posted numbers on its Web site late Wednesday that showed the drive has a mathematical chance to pass its first hurdle but virtually no practical chance. Critics of the residential portion of the plan that would allow up to 5,500 new residences in town center need to have collected 2,501 valid signatures to pass the first requirement.

IF BALTIMORE County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has his way, the region's largest jurisdiction will soon join a small but growing revolt against the straitjacket strictures of traditional zoning. Up to seven communities will be allowed to write their own codes. The goal: cutting red tape and speeding up revitalization of decaying commercial strips. The County Council should support this radical experiment when enabling legislation is introduced in the next few weeks. From Randallstown to the U.S. 40 corridor, the current zoning approach has failed to spur viable redevelopment; it's time to try alternatives.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival organizers have appealed a zoning decision that prevents the festival from moving to a new site in southern Anne Arundel County. Earlier this month, the county's administrative hearing officer denied requests from the festival for a special exception and variances to allow the festival to operate on a Lothian farm that lacks required "major road" access. The case now moves to the county's seven-member Board of Appeals. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The Baltimore County Council unanimously enacted tougher zoning on businesses that stock adult entertainment products at its legislative session Tuesday. The new law will require those businesses to scale back total adult inventory from 20 to 15 percent or relocate to a less visible location. The same standard applies to the establishment's gross retail sales. The ban also prevents adult video stores, massage parlors and tattoo and body-piercing shops and any others that sell or display sexual paraphernalia and material from operating within 1,000 feet of many establishments — including churches, libraries, day care centers, homes or other family facilities.

A Columbia-based developer is requesting rezoning of 50 acres of office park-research land near new Route 100 and Executive Park Drive for apartments.K & M Development Corp. Inc. filed the request yesterday for zoning authority to build as many as 750 apartments and condominiums on the site west of Loew's Columbia Palace Nine theater and Howard High School. "The concept is to have condominium units which can be used as starter homes and affordable housing," said Richard B. Talkin, an attorney for the development firm.

After shrinking for a while to its smallest size in 30 years, the Chesapeake Bay's "dead zone" has made a late-summer comeback, and that's not good for crabs, fish and oysters. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources reports that the volume of bay water with too little oxygen in it for fish to breathe -- also known as the "dead zone" -- rebounded in early August to its 8th largest size. In early July, the zone had dipped to a record-low volume in early July, a shift scientists attributed to Hurricane Arthur stirring the bay's waters as the storm passed by Maryland on its way up the Atlantic coast. With the dead zone back to above-average, the volume of low-oxygen water in the main bay was estimated last week to be 1.32 cubic miles. That's about what government and University of Maryland scientists had predicted early in the summer, based on high river flows resulting from a wetter spring this year than in 2013. Heavy rains and snow melt tend to wash more nitrogen and phosphorus off the land into the water, where the plant nutrients stimulate algae blooms, followed by a dip in oxygen levels in the bay's depths.

A contracted highway worker for the State Highway Administration died Thursday evening after being struck by a vehicle in a work zone in St. Michaels, according to the SHA and Maryland State Police. John Kenneth Shahan, 40, of Denton, was controlling traffic near the intersection of Saint Michaels and Deep Water Point roads about 1:40 p.m. when he was struck by a 2005 Chrysler Sebring convertible, police said. Shahan was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with serious injuries, and died there Sunday evening, police said.

The Ravens are banking on an encouraging start against the San Francisco 49ers in the preseason opener to set an aggressive tone for their red-zone offense under the direction of new offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. Last season, they were one of the worst red-zone outfits in the NFL, ranking 31st in the league in red-zone efficiency. They scored just 24 touchdowns on 52 trips inside opponents' 20-yard line. This year, though, the Ravens are displaying signs of turning around one of the most frustrating aspects of their 2013 season.

A Calvert County circuit judge has overturned the Southern Maryland county's decision to exempt the proposed Cove Point liquefied natural gas export facility from local zoning regulations. It's not clear, however, whether the decision affects plans for the $3.4 billion project. Judge James P. Salmon declared that Calvert County acted illegally in freeing Cove Point, now the site of a liquefied natural gas import terminal, from having to comply with the county's zoning ordinance. In doing so, the judge said, county officials violated Maryland's constitution by treating Dominion, the Virginia-based energy company that owns the site, differently from other property owners.

The state has approved bigger tax breaks for industrial properties in Southeast Baltimore, including the site of a new Amazon warehouse. Designed to spur job creation, the benefits took effect Tuesday. The new "focus areas" provide property owners with a 10-year, 80 percent property tax credit on value added by physical improvements. They also boost the credits granted for wages paid to new employees and offer breaks for investments in "personal property," such as machinery. The benefits apply to about 2.4 square miles around Holabird Avenue and about 7.4 square miles in Orangeville, excluding the residential area.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival organizers have appealed a zoning decision that prevents the festival from moving to a new site in southern Anne Arundel County. Earlier this month, the county's administrative hearing officer denied requests from the festival for a special exception and variances to allow the festival to operate on a Lothian farm that lacks required "major road" access. The case now moves to the county's seven-member Board of Appeals. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The Board of County Commissioners agreed Monday to proceed with a study to determine how to zone industrial property with environmental impacts in mind.James C. Threatte, director of the county Office of Economic Development, said the county should consider environmentalimpacts before land is zoned for industrial use."From an industrial point of view, it's unnecessary for us to be at odds with environmental groups. We've got to get smarter," he said.The county will work through its Industrial Development Authority to obtain a matching $20,000 grant from the state for the study, Threatte said.

Scientists are predicting that the Chesapeake Bay's oxygen-starved "dead zone" will be slightly larger than average this summer. Using computer modeling underwritten by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , researchers forecast that by next month, nearly 2 cubic miles of bay water will have inadequate oxygen dissolved in it for fish and crabs to thrive. That's roughly 12 percent of the water in the bay and its river tributaries, according to Caroline Wicks of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science . If it follows the normal pattern, the dead zone will grow and intensify until mid-July, then slowly shrink.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival is seeking a zoning approval to move to a new property in southern Anne Arundel County. The festival and property owner Michael Booth will appear before a county hearing officer on Thursday to make the case for a variance to allow the festival to be located on Upper Pindell Road in Lothian, which is designated as a scenic and historic road and lacks required direct main road access. They also are seeking a special zoning exception, which is required for renaissance festivals, and are also seeking . They also want approval to run the festival for 23 days each fall, up from the current 19 days.